Information processing terminal displaying guidance for a key operation on a standby-screen

ABSTRACT

A cellular phone and a guidance display program enable an enhancement of operability when operating the cellular phone, corresponding to an event. An occurrence of an event is detected, guidance information corresponding to the event is searched out of a guidance storage unit. A standby-image corresponding to the guidance information is generated and then displayed, and guidance is displayed in the standby-image. When accepting an operation displayed in the guidance, a process corresponding to the event is executed.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a technology of displaying guidance fora key operation etc on a standby-screen of an information processingterminal.

The category of the information processing terminals according to thepresent invention includes a cellular phone, a PHS (Personal Handy phoneSystem), a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), a PC (Personal computer)and so on.

Up-to-date various kinds of devices such as the cellular phone or thePDA are utilized as the information processing terminal.

The information processing terminals implement a multiplicity offunctions such as management of schedule, access the Web, and acommunication (a call). Utilization of these functions involvesselecting and executing a target function by manipulating an operationkey.

For example, in a cellular phone, a dialing function of a telephonenumber, a function of delivering and receiving an e-mail and a functionof hearing an answering recording are executed by pressing keys assignedthese functions and selecting a selection menu displayed as an option ofeach function by use of a menu key.

The cellular phone or the PDA is limited in terms of the number ofimplementations of keys assigned the respective functions and the menukey in order to design the cellular phone in a portable size.

Therefore, a contrivance is that a larger number of keys are laid out bydownsizing each key to the greatest possible degree, and a plurality offunctions are assigned to one single key.

Particularly as the cellular phone has come to have highly sophisticatedfunctions over the recent years, this tendency becomes more conspicuous.

If the multiplicity of small keys are laid out as described above,however, an area for displaying each key function naturally narrows,with the result that a user might feel it difficult to recognize whichfunction each key corresponds to. Especially in this case, fresh usersand aged users are hard to manipulate the keys, and this is notpreferable in terms of promoting the universal design.

Further, if the plurality of functions are assigned to one single key,the user needs an operation for selecting which function among theplurality of function after pressing this key, and therefor a problem isthat the operation becomes complicated enough not to recognize.

For example, on a general type of cellular phone, when receiving thee-mail during a standby status, a piece of guidance [a mail is received]is displayed on a standby-screen.

This guidance enables the user to know that the mail has been received.There arises, however, a problem that the way of indicating whichoperation the user performs next for reading this mail can not be knownfrom such a display.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is a primary object of the present invention, which was devised toobviate the problems inherent in the prior art described above, toprovide a technology capable of enhancing operability when operating acellular phone, corresponding to an event.

To accomplish this object, in a cellular phone and a guidance displayprogram according to the present invention, an occurrence of an event isdetected, guidance information corresponding to the event is searchedout of a guidance storage unit. A standby-image corresponding to theguidance information is generated and then displayed, and guidance isdisplayed in the standby-image.

With this scheme, when the event occurs during a standby status, anoperation conducted next corresponding to this event is displayed on thestandby-screen, then becomes easy for every user to understand and canbe conducted in intuition, thereby improving the operability.

According to one aspect of the present invention, a cellular phone hasan event detection unit detecting an occurrence of an event, a guidancestorage unit stored with pieces of guidance information corresponding torespective events, a guidance search unit searching out the guidanceinformation corresponding to the event from the guidance storage unit,an image generation unit generating a standby-image corresponding to theguidance information, and a display control unit displaying thestandby-image.

The cellular phone may further have an operation accept unit acceptingan operation displayed in the guidance, and a process executing unitexecuting a process corresponding to the event when accepting theoperation.

The cellular phone may further have an assignment change unit changing afunction assigned to an operation key in the case of displaying theguidance, wherein the guidance search unit may search out the guidanceinformation indicating an operation of the operation key after changingthe function.

In the cellular phone, the guidance information may contain an image ofthe operation key operated corresponding to the event.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a guidance displayprogram running on a cellular phone, includes detecting an occurrence ofan event, searching out guidance information corresponding to the eventfrom a guidance storage unit, generating a standby-image correspondingto the guidance information, and displaying the standby-image, wherebythe guidance is displayed in the standby-image.

Further, the guidance display program may further include accepting anoperation displayed in the guidance, and executing a processcorresponding to the event when accepting the operation.

Moreover, the guidance display program may further include changing afunction assigned to an operation key in the case of displaying theguidance, wherein the above search-out involves searching out theguidance information indicating an operation of the operation key afterchanging the function.

In the guidance display program, the guidance information may contain animage of the operation key operated corresponding to the event.

According to still another aspect of the present invention, a cellularphone guidance display method executed by a cellular phone, includesdetecting an occurrence of an event, searching out guidance informationcorresponding to the event from a guidance storage unit, generating astandby-image corresponding to the guidance information, and displayingthe standby-image, whereby the guidance is displayed in thestandby-image.

The cellular phone guidance display method may further include acceptingan operation displayed in the guidance, and executing a processcorresponding to the event when accepting the operation.

The cellular phone guidance display method may further include changinga function assigned to an operation key in the case of displaying theguidance, wherein the search-out involves searching out the guidanceinformation indicating an operation of the operation key after changingthe function.

In the cellular phone guidance display method, the guidance informationmay contain an image of the operation key operated corresponding to theevent.

According to a further aspect of the present invention, there may beprovided a recording medium recorded with the guidance display programexecuted by a computer to display the guidance. The program on thisrecording medium is read and executed by the computer, whereby functionsthereof can be provided.

Herein, the readable-by-computer recording medium includes recordingmediums capable of storing information such as data, programs, etc.magnetically, optically and mechanically or by chemical action, whichcan be all read by the computer. What is demountable out of the computeramong those recording mediums may be, e.g., a floppy disk, amagneto-optic disk, a CD-ROM, a CD-R/W, a DVD, a DAT, an 8 mm tape, amemory card, etc.

Further, a hard disk, a ROM (Read Only Memory) and so on are classifiedas fixed type recording mediums within the computer.

According to the present invention, the architectures described abovecan be combined to the greatest possible degree.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an explanatory view showing a cellular phone of the presentinvention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the cellular phone of the presentinvention;

FIG. 3 is an explanatory flowchart showing a guidance display method;

FIG. 4 is a view showing an example of a guidance display on thecellular phone;

FIG. 5 is a view showing an example of the guidance display on thecellular phone;

FIG. 6 is a view showing an example of the guidance display on thecellular phone;

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a data structure of guidance information ina modified example; and

FIGS. 8( a) through 8(d) are explanatory diagrams showing how astandby-image is generated.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

A cellular phone as An information processing terminal in an embodiment1 of the present invention will hereinafter be described with referenceto FIGS. 1 through 7.

§1. Whole Architecture

FIG. 1 is a view illustrating an example of a guidance display on thecellular phone in the embodiment 1.

A cellular phone 1, if there occurs an event such as receiving a mail, amessage, a phone call (call receiving) and so on when in a standbystatus, searches out guidance information indicating an operationcorresponding to this event, and displays guidance on the standby-screenon the basis of this piece of guidance information.

According to the embodiment 1, as shown in FIG. 1, a design of operationkeys is displayed as it is on the standby-screen, and the operations areillustrated, thereby enabling intuitive operations to be performed.

§2. Architecture of Cellular Phone

Next, an architecture of the cellular phone in the embodiment 1 will beexplained. FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the cellular phone according tothe present invention.

As shown in FIG. 2, the cellular phone 1 in the embodiment 1 includes anantenna 31, a wireless circuit unit 32, a communication control unit 33,a storage unit 34, a key operation unit 36, a voice CODEC(coder-decoder) 37, a voice output unit (a speech receiving unit) 38, avoice input unit (a speech sending unit) 39, a message control unit 40,a mail control unit 41, a display unit 42 and an arithmetic processingunit 43.

The antenna 31 is used for transmitting and receiving radio waves whenperforming communications with a radio base station (unillustrated). Thewireless circuit unit 32 generates receiving data by demodulating theradio waves received by the antenna 31, then modulates transmitting datainto a predetermined frequency, and outputs the modulated signals viathe antenna 31.

The communication control unit 33 performs control of decoding thedemodulated signals generated by the wireless circuit unit 32,outputting the coded transmitting data to the wireless circuit unit 32,and thus having the communications performed, and so forth.

The storage unit 34 is constructed of a flash memory, an SRAM (StaticRandom Access Memory), an NVRAM (Nonvolatile Random Access Memory) etc.,and is stored with phone number data, data of mails delivered andreceived, data of messages, an application program and so on. Further,the storage unit 34 is stored with pieces of guidance information whichwill be explained later on in away that makes them corresponding toevents, and also functions as a guidance storage unit.

The key operation unit 36 is constructed of operation keys 36 a forinputting the phone numbers and characters, operation keys 36 b forselecting selection menus, and so forth. The key operation unit 36 mayinvolve the use of input dials (rotating dials), a touch panel, etc inaddition to the operations keys described above.

The voice CODEC 37, after receiving the voice data decoded by thecommunication control unit 33 and decoding the same data inspecifications based on a voice coding system, executes an analogconversion thereof and outputs the thus converted data as voice signalsto the voice output unit 38. Further, the voice CODEC 37, afterexecuting a digital conversion of the voice signals inputted from thevoice input unit 39, encodes the thus converted signals in thespecifications based on the voice coding system and outputs them asvoice data to the communication control unit 33.

The voice output unit 38 is constructed of a loudspeaker and anamplifier, and outputs the voice signals as a voice. The voice inputunit 39 is constructed of a microphone and an amplifier, and inputs avoice of a speaker as voice signals described above.

The message control unit 40, if a user does not respond to a phone call,answers in voice such as [Try to record a message after the feep], thusprompting the caller to input the message. Then, when the message isinputted, the message control unit 40 stores this message on the storageunit 34.

The mail control unit 41 receives the mail data decoded by thecommunication control unit 33, then decodes the mail data inpredetermined specification, and stores the thus decoded data on thestorage unit 34. Further, the mail control unit 41 generates the maildata based on an input from the key operation unit 36 and outputs themail data to the communication control unit 33. The mail data outputtedtherefrom are coded by the communication control unit and transmitted bythe wireless circuit unit 32, thereby delivering an e-mail to a terminalas the other communication party via the radio base station. Moreover,the mail control unit 41 reads the received mail data from the storageunit 34, and displays a content of the mail on the display unit 42.

The display unit 42 is constructed of an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display),an EL (electroluminescent) display etc., and displays the phone number,the content of the mail, a standby-image and so on.

The arithmetic processing unit 43 is constructed of a CPU (centralProcessing unit), a main memory etc. The arithmetic processing unit 43executes arithmetic processes based on the information given from therespective units and the application software, thereby actualizingfunctions of an event detection unit, a guidance search unit, an imagegeneration unit, a display control unit, an operation accept unit, aprocess executing unit, an assignment change unit and so on.

The arithmetic processing unit 43, as the function of the vent detectionunit, receives the data decoded by the communication control unit 33,thereby detecting an occurrence of the event.

Further, the arithmetic processing unit 43, as the function of theguidance search unit, searches out apiece of guidance informationcorresponding to the event from the storage unit 34 (precisely from theguidance storage unit).

The arithmetic processing unit 43, as the function of the imagegeneration unit, generates a standby-image corresponding to the guidanceinformation.

The arithmetic processing unit 43, as the function of the displaycontrol unit, makes the display unit 42 displays the standby-imagegenerated by the image generation unit.

The arithmetic processing unit 43, as the function of the operationaccept unit, accepts the operation displayed in the guidance.

The arithmetic processing unit 43, as the function of the processexecuting unit, executes a process corresponding to the event whenaccepting the operation described above.

Moreover, the arithmetic processing unit 43, as the function of theassignment change unit, changes a function assigned to the operation keywhen accepting the event described above.

The embodiment 1 has, as discussed above, such a scheme that thearithmetic processing unit 43 executes the functions of the respectiveunits based on the software, however, these units may also be configuredby electronic circuits (hardware) that executes those functions.

§3. Guidance Display Method in Cellular Phone

A guidance display method in the cellular phone described above will beexplained referring to FIG. 3.

The cellular phone 1, when its power source is switched ON (step 1:“step” used in the following discussion will be abbreviated to “S” suchas S1), is kept in a standby status till an operation through the keyoperation unit 36 is started (S2).

The cellular phone 1 comes to a call receiving status when receiving theradio waves from the wireless base station, and these radio waves aredemodulated by the wireless circuit unit 32 and decoded by thecommunication control unit 33 (S3).

The cellular phone 1, as the function of the event detection unit,judges whether the data decoded by the communication control unit 33contain an event or not (S4).

Then, the cellular phone 1, if the event is contained therein, as thefunction of the event detection unit, judges a category of the event (S5through S7). In the embodiment 1, the cellular phone 1 judges at firstwhether a mail is received or not (S5). Herein, if the mail is notreceived, the cellular phone 1 judges whether there is a message or not(S6). Further, if there is no input of the message, the cellular phone 1judges whether a phone call is received (call receiving) or not (S7). Ifnot the call receiving, the processing loops back to S2.

Whereas if it is judged in S5 that the mail is received, the cellularphone 1, as the function of the guidance search unit, searches out apiece of guidance information corresponding to the receipt of the mailfrom the storage unit 34. Then, the cellular phone 1 generatesstandby-image information based on the guidance information searched outand, as the function of the display control unit, displays thestandby-image on the display unit 42. Namely, as shown in FIG. 1, thecellular phone 1 displays guidance [the mail is received] (S8).

Similarly, when judging in S6 that there is the message, the cellularphone 1, as shown in FIG. 4, displays guidance [the message is left] 42b(S9). Further, when judging in S7 that the call is received, thecellular phone 1, as shown in FIG. 5, displays guidance [the call isreceived] 42 f (S10).

Thereafter, the cellular phone 1 returns to the standby status (S11) andrepeats this loop of processes (S2 through S11) till a user's event isstarted.

As a result, if a plurality of events occur till the operation starts,plural pieces of guidance corresponding thereto are displayed. Forexample, if the message is received after receiving the mail, as shownin FIG. 6, the guidance [the mail is received] 42 b and the guidance[the message is left] 42 f are displayed together.

Further, when performing this mode of guidance display, the cellularphone 1 changes a key assignment so that the operation corresponding tothe event can be conducted by one-touch operation.

For example, in the case of displaying a content of the mail at a normaltime, a selection menu (unillustrated) is displayed by pressing a menukey 51, a “mail” is selected from this menu by pressing multi-keys 52,and a decision key 53 is pressed. By contrast, on the occasion ofdisplaying the guidance [the mail is received] on the standby-screen, afunction assignment of the multi-keys 52 is changed so that the contentof the mail is displayed when pressing an upper key of the multi-keys52. Further, the assignment is changed in the same way with respect toreceiving the message and the call so that a process corresponding to aleft or lower key of the multi-keys 52 is executed when pressing thisleft or lower key.

Then, in a case where the user having confirmed this guidance displayperforms an operation of pressing the key indicated by this guidance,the cellular phone 1, as the function of the operation accept unit,accepts this operation (S12) and, as the function of the processexecuting unit, executes a process corresponding to this event (S13).

Namely, if the event is a receipt of the mail, the cellular phone 1displays this mail on the display unit 42, then reproduces the messageif the event is a receipt of the message, and, if the event is a receiptof the call, displays a call receiving history.

When terminating this process, the cellular phone 1 returns to thestandby status (S14).

As discussed above, the cellular phone 1 in the embodiment 1 displaysthe guidance illustrating the key that is to be manipulated nextcorresponding to the event. With this scheme, the operation becomes easyfor every user to understand and can be conducted in intuition, therebyimproving the operability.

Further, according to the embodiment 1, the key assignment is changedwhen displaying the guidance, whereby even the function normallyexecuted by manipulating the plurality of keys can be executed byone-touch operation.

Modified Example

The embodiment 1 has exemplified the case where the standby-image isgenerated in a way that uses the as-stored image as the guidanceinformation. the embodiment of the present invention is not, however,limited to this exemplification, there may be a scheme, wherein theimages of the operation keys and the character information areseparately stored as pieces of guidance information, and a standby-imageis generated by combining the key image and the character information.

For instance, as shown in FIG. 7, a key image 60 g, characterinformation 60 b and positional information 60 c are storedcorresponding to each event 60 a in different fields.

In S8 through S10, the cellular phone 1, as the function of the guidancesearch unit, searches out the key image 60 g, the character information60 b and the positional information 60 c each corresponding to the event60 a, and generates, as the function of the image generation unit, thestandby-image information based on the guidance information.

At this time, if the event is the receipt of the mail, changes a colortone of a manipulating target area as illustrated in FIG. 8( b) on thebasis of the positional information (of the upper key) of the multi-keyimage shown in FIG. 8( a), and the character information (the mail isreceived) is synthesized with this position (FIG. 8( c). Then, thestandby-image containing this guidance is generated (FIG. 8( d)).

According to this modified example, the key images can be madecorresponding to the plurality of events, whereby a storage capacity ofthe guidance storage unit can be restrained.

Further, according to this modified example, the plurality of keys areillustrated as the key images, and the manipulating target key isdistinguishable by displaying it in the different color tone, therebymaking it possible to indicate a positional relationship between themanipulating target key and the keys peripheral thereto, to facilitate agrasp of the key position and to enhance the operability.

1. An information processing terminal comprising: an event detectionunit detecting an occurrence of an event based on a received data fromanother terminal; a guidance storage unit stored with pieces of guidanceinformation corresponding to respective events; a guidance search unitsearching out the guidance information comprising an operation conductednext corresponding to the event from said guidance storage unit; animage generation unit generating a standby-image corresponding to theguidance information; and a display control unit displaying thestandby-image; wherein the standby image corresponding to the guidanceinformation is displayed if the event based on the data received fromanother terminal occurs, and wherein the guidance information containsan image of the operation key operated corresponding to the event.
 2. Aninformation processing terminal according to claim 1, furthercomprising: an operation accept unit accepting an operation displayed inthe guidance; and a process executing unit executing a processcorresponding to the event when accepting the operation.
 3. Aninformation processing terminal according to claim 1, further comprisingan assignment change unit changing a function assigned to an operationkey in the case of displaying the guidance, wherein said guidance searchunit searches out the guidance information indicating an operation ofthe operation key after changing the function.
 4. An informationprocessing terminal according to claim 1, wherein said guidance searchunit searches out the guidance information of manipulation that is to bemade next in corresponding to the event.
 5. A storage medium readable bya computer, tangible embodying a program of instructions executable bythe computer to perform method steps comprising: detecting an occurrenceof an event based on a received data from another terminal; searchingout guidance information comprising an operation conducted nextcorresponding to the event from a guidance storage unit; generating astandby-image corresponding to the guidance information; and displayingthe standby-image, whereby the guidance is displayed in thestandby-image; the standby image corresponding to the guidanceinformation is displayed if the event based on the data received fromanother terminal occurs, and wherein the guidance information containsan image of the operation key operated corresponding to the event.
 6. Astorage medium readable by a computer, tangible embodying a programaccording to claim 5, further comprising: accepting an operationdisplayed in the guidance; and executing a process corresponding to theevent when accepting the operation.
 7. A storage medium readable by acomputer, tangible embodying a program according to claim 5, furthercomprising changing a function assigned to an operation key in the caseof displaying the guidance, wherein said search-out involves searchingout the guidance information indicating an operation of the operationkey after changing the function.
 8. An information processing terminalguidance display method executed by an information processing terminal,comprising: detecting an occurrence of an event based on a received datafrom another terminal; searching out guidance information comprising anoperation conducted next corresponding to the event from a guidancestorage unit; generating a standby-image corresponding to the guidanceinformation; and displaying the standby-image, whereby the guidance isdisplayed in the standby-image; the standby image corresponding to theguidance information is displayed if the event based on the datareceived from another terminal occurs, and wherein the guidanceinformation contains an image of the operation key operatedcorresponding to the event.
 9. An information processing terminalguidance display method according to claim 8, further comprising:accepting an operation displayed in the guidance; and executing aprocess corresponding to the event when accepting the operation.
 10. Aninformation processing terminal guidance display method according toclaim 8, further comprising changing a function assigned to an operationkey in the case of displaying the guidance, wherein said search-outinvolves searching out the guidance information indicating an operationof the operation key after changing the function.